Controversies in the Management of Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a physical insult (a bump, jolt, or blow) to the brain that results in temporary or permanent impairment of normal brain function. TBI describes a heterogeneous group of disorders. The resulting secondary injury, namely brain swelling and its sequelae, is the reason why patients with these vastly different initial insults are homogenously treated. Much of the evidence for the management of TBI is poor or conflicting, and thus definitive guidelines are largely unavailable for clinicians at this time. A substantial portion of this article focuses on discussing the controversies in the management of TBI.